Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Bought by Russell Investments Group Ltd.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,580,091 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 117,463 shares during the period. Visa makes up 0.7% of Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned approximately 0.09% of Visa worth $499,257,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $56,000. Hemenway Trust Co LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Hemenway Trust Co LLC now owns 2,340 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $740,000 after acquiring an additional 337 shares in the last quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. grew its holdings in Visa by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 62,348 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $19,704,000 after acquiring an additional 953 shares in the last quarter. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,312 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,995,000 after acquiring an additional 593 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 2,956,929 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $934,508,000 after purchasing an additional 35,709 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $2,930,800.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on V. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 target price (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $313.46 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $582.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.60, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s fifty day moving average is $345.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $316.89.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc operates as a payment technology company in the United States and internationally. The company operates VisaNet, a transaction processing network that enables authorization, clearing, and settlement of payment transactions. It also offers credit, debit, and prepaid card products; tap to pay, tokenization, and click to pay services; Visa Direct, a solution that facilitates the delivery of funds to eligible cards, deposit accounts, and digital wallets; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral business-to-business cross-border payments network; Visa Cross-Border Solution, a cross-border consumer payments solution; and Visa DPS that provides a range of value-added services, including fraud mitigation, dispute management, data analytics, campaign management, a suite of digital solutions, and contact center services.